Women's Views on News |
- No to sex-selection abortion amendment
- Women’s literature festival in March
- The more you talk, the less it will happen
| No to sex-selection abortion amendment Posted: 20 Feb 2015 05:45 AM PST
Fiona Bruce MP has tabled a parliamentary amendment to the Serious Crime Bill which would make it clear that conducting or procuring an abortion on the grounds that the unborn child is a girl – or a boy (although this practice mainly affects girls) is illegal. Southall Black Sisters (SBS), the Centre for Secular Space and other individuals and organisations believe that MPs should vote against the amendment on sex selection abortion in the Serious Crimes Bill. As a statement on Southall Black Sisters’ website says: ‘We urge a ‘No’ vote, even though we acknowledge the threat to women of pre-natal sex selection. We simply consider this measure to be unnecessary and to have unintended consequences, which will be harmful to individual women. We consider that sex selection abortion is a major human rights crisis in many parts of the world, notably China, India and Korea. We are concerned that the debate so far has not captured the issues that Parliament needs to consider. And we see pre-natal sex selection as a form of discrimination against women, a major threat to gender equality. But the measure proposed does nothing to address gender discrimination and inequality and may have the consequence of worsening coercion, and leading to unsafe abortions, which will endanger women. Unfortunately, most Western health rights advocates have ignored the widespread impact of widening sex ratios or in Professor Amartya Sen's words 'disappearing women'. In a recent article in the British Medical Journal, Professor Sen amended his original estimate of 50 million missing women in India: worldwide, the number has been calculated at over 100 million. While education and health care measures have reduced maternal mortality, sex selection has nullified this gain. It remains, therefore a growing problem, whose basis is still not fully understood and needs further research. But regarding Monday’s vote: No evidence base for sex-selection in Britain has been provided by proponents of the amendment. Is this problem occurring in Britain? The majority of the case studies that have been produced by organisations like Jeena International, highlight not the pervasive practice of sex selection abortion but of domestic violence in which women are harassed, threatened or assaulted for giving birth to girl children. The conflation between sex selection abortion and domestic violence is dangerous since it undermines important efforts that are being made to highlight culturally specific forms of harm in the UK and the need for more in depth research on such forms of harm and appropriate state intervention in the UK. Sex- selection is already unlawful under existing law. The current laws on abortion already make clear that sex selection abortion is unlawful, except for specific medical reasons, such as genetic disorders. There is no reason why existing criminal laws that already cover acts of domestic violence including an assault causing a miscarriage, cannot be used. The newly created domestic violence law on coercion can also be invoked in cases where women are coerced into sex selection abortion. Measures to address coercion already exist and should be better implemented. The problem of coercion to undergo sex selection abortion can be addressed by other measures such as a robust implementation of the recently developed NICE guidelines requiring medical professionals, including GPs and midwives to screen for coercion and domestic violence during routine medical checks. Screening measures like these can be assessed for their effectiveness and improved. Other measures for screening for sex selection abortions, including those that involve some degree of community profiling may be justified if undertaken for protection purposes, in the same way that targeting protection for vulnerable women in minority communities from forced marriage or FGM is justified. However, further research and consultation is needed with a wide range of black and minority women's organisations and others working on reproductive rights that have a track record in promoting women's human rights. Learn from experience – criminalisation of FGM alone has neither protected women from FGM nor brought about any convictions. The British state has repeatedly sought 'resource neutral' solutions to violence against women in minority communities. This amendment is the latest in a long line of criminal law measures aimed at ostensibly protecting black and minority women. But these criminal laws are not backed by the provision of adequate resources, needed to ensure that state protection is meaningful or to meet international human rights obligations. Austerity measures have had a disproportionate impact on black and minority women; they have led to the closure of refuges, of counselling and support services for black and minority women and to the withdrawal of legal aid needed to access protection and justice. The lack of resources is now an acute problem and yet without them, black and minority women cannot be empowered or supported to assert their human rights. Some advocates of the amendment are using this issue to promote an anti-abortion agenda, not the protection of individual women's rights or gender equality. Christian right advocates are promoting this issue to further their goal to restrict abortion. For instance, MPs Nadine Dorries and Fiona Bruce have very poor records of voting against equality and human rights including for same-sex marriage among other issues. Fiona Bruce MP has the support of a large evangelical Christian network and Hindu, Sikh and Muslim fundamentalist or fundamentalist-linked organisations that claim to act on behalf of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim women even though historically they have no interest in or supported the human rights of minority women. Nor have they sought to initiate a democratic public debate on the matter in minority communities. The issue of sex-selection has been steadily ignored by most international reproductive rights advocates. Indian feminists have tried raising this issue at international conferences and have been ignored.’ Southall Black Sisters (SBS), the Centre for Secular Space and other individuals and organisations understand their frustration at the lack of action regarding sex-selection, but point out that this is a bad faith amendment which will not protect women or result in more girls being born. We urge you to reject it and pledge to work on the wider problem. Fiona Bruce has offered as evidence the testimonies of women who aborted otherwise wanted pregnancies either because they recognised the social expectation to deliver boys, or because a violent husband beat them till they submitted to a termination. These women are the victims of male violence, and it seems unlikely that the man who punches and kicks his wife would balk at forcing her to have an unsafe backstreet abortion if there was no other option. And, as Sarah Ditum wrote in the New Statesman, by making it illegal to "procure" an abortion on the grounds of sex, the bill will criminalise the very women it presumes to protect, and punish the subjugated a second time. The Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO) has said clearly, in their statement opposing the amendment: "these women who are victims in these cases should be provided with the support that they need." They should not be treated as criminals.  |
| Women’s literature festival in March Posted: 20 Feb 2015 04:12 AM PST
Bristol’s Women's Literature Festival aims to celebrate the work of women writers working today and throughout history by bringing together the diverse and exciting talent of women writers, academics and activists to showcase the fantastic literary heritage of women. Organised by feminist writer Siân Norris, the festival is a celebration of the work of women writers in a literary scene that is all too often dominated by male voices. The fascinating and varied programme this year – 14-15 March 2015 – features some of the most influential and vibrant female writers working today – and tickets are on sale now! The writers include award-winning novelist and short story writer Michele Roberts, winner of Faber Young Poet of the Year Helen Mort, writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, poet and filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, activists and writers Beatrix Campbell and Caroline Criado-Perez, and leading academic Professor Helen Hackett. Feminist activists, writers and journalists Beatrix Campbell and Caroline Criado-Perez, Nimko Ali, feminist activist Finn Mackay and Helen Lewis, the deputy editor of the New Statesman, will discuss feminism, writing, the development of the movement and their own careers in the Women, Feminism and Journalism discussion. What are the challenges and triumphs of feminism in journalism? Come and hear from panel and share your thoughts. The film Paris was a Woman is a portrait of the creative community of women writers, artists, photographers and editors who flocked to the Left Bank of Paris in the early decades of the 20th century, when Paris was the undisputed cultural capital of the world. Greta Schiller's 1996 film explores the lives of some of the key Left Bank women, including Stein, Djuna Barnes, Colette, and Sylvia Beach. The showing of Paris was a Woman will be followed by a brief audience discussion, chaired by Sian Norris, the founder of the Bristol Women's Literature Festival who is currently writing a book about Gertrude Stein and her circle. Selma Dabbagh is a London-based British Palestinian writer of novels, short stories and plays and lawyer. Her first novel, 'Out of It,' published in 2011, is set between Gaza, London and the Gulf and has been voted Guardian Book of the Year. Annemarie Jacir is an award-winning director, poet and activist currently living between Palestine and Jordan. The work of Palestinian writers and poets has been a major influence on their lives. Alongside their own works, at Poetry, Prose and Palestine, Dabbagh and Jacir will read and discuss the poems of other well-known Palestinian writers. Their presentations and discussion will explore how prose and poems challenge the dominant narratives on Palestine and the occupation, reaffirm Palestinian identity and maintain a constant struggle for equality and fairness, land, home and nationhood. They will explore why it is that people on a global level relate with the Palestinian cause in the way that they do and the role that the arts have in influencing activism and change. In her talk, The Vagina – A Literary and Cultural History, academic Emma Rees will consider why British and US culture has such a problem talking about the female body. She will map the long history of advertising that profits from the taboo of the vagina, reflecting on how writers, artists and filmmakers have been influenced by, or even perpetuate, this 'shame'. Women Writing in Shakespeare’s Time; learn about women’s contribution to drama in Shakespeare’s time from Helen Hackett, Professor of English at UCL. Helen Hackett is the author of five books on Renaissance literature and has special interests in Renaissance women writers and in literary images of Elizabeth I. During Women Writing Today, Sarah Lefanu will be talking to novelist and short story writer Michele Roberts, playwright and memoirist Samantha Ellis, five times winner of the Foyles Young Poet award Helen Mort, novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, and first-time novelist Amy Mason about their work. Bristol Women's Literature Festival brings together women writers, academics and feminist commentators to the Watershed for a weekend of thought-provoking discussion, debate and activity. The festival has three aims: to celebrate the diversity and creativity of women writers; to counter the male dominance of literature and cultural festival line-ups; and to promote women's writing and literary history, The festival is entirely unfunded. If you would like to support this event, please click here to donate. And you can keep up to date with what's on by following the festival on facebook.  |
| The more you talk, the less it will happen Posted: 20 Feb 2015 03:08 AM PST
Pooja Batura, a 29 year-old female freelance writer/director, talks about the release of her latest film short, Bol. Bol, a silent film shot in India, contains powerful vignettes that illustrate incidences of sexual abuse. Pooja Batura’s hope is that the link to the film will be shared widely and awareness raised. She is currently writing another short film which is about life after rape. "The idea behind making ‘Bol’ – a Hindi word which means to ‘speak up’ – was precise and clear: to raise awareness of how sexual harassment, rape, and molestation is on the rise in India. “Whether it has happened to a woman, girl or child is not the only question – as important is where is this happening? Behind closed doors? Out in the open? In the periphery of our homes? “After the Delhi rape case in 2012, we, as women, feared for ourselves: we clutched each other emotionally seeking assurance that it would not happen to us: the incident stood as a cruel reference to the times we are living in. “With fiercely noisy news channels shouting on top of their voices and the advent of social media we witness sexual harassment every day. Each and every woman is affected by it in the social realms of our so called civil society. “It is a disgusting reality within which today’s women live. “As a film maker I had to do something or else it would have eaten me up. That was when the seeds of Bol were born. “Bol is not only a film, it is my message to the folks out there to be aware. The idea is to illustrate sexual abuse and get people talking about it so that men in my country know that any lecherous intent will not be tolerated anymore. “I want to prevent it from happening to anyone and everyone by raising awareness in social media to young men and women who are going to be the agents of change in this country for decades to come. “To the women of Delhi, I want to imagine a Delhi without rape – can you? No you can’t. So what can you do? Being an optimist I believe even if one of you passes the link to the film on, awareness will increase – the more you talk the less it will happen. Please spread the word – BOL." To watch the film, click here. Trigger warning for content. Please share, share, share! And follow @Pooja_Batura  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Women's Views on News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |